'I will regulate pubs, but I don't visit them'

A key figure behind plans to force more costly red tape on all licensees can't remember the last time he visited a pub.

Home Office minister Alan Campbell made the admission at a debate on the controversial mandatory alcohol retailing code at a Police and Crime Bill Committee hearing.

The code, which could be in force from the summer, would see mandatory conditions placed on all alcohol retailers, including curbs on some drinks deals and offering smaller drinks measures. Councils could attach more stringent conditions to multiple venues in hotspots.

Addressing concerns about the burden of the code leading to pub closures, Campbell said: "I agree that we have to be very careful about burdens, but the evidence sessions showed that there was a whole range of reasons why pubs closed, not least the social changes that are taking place.

"I am trying to think of the last time that I was in a pub. It is probably easier for MPs not go to into pubs because we have work to do when we go in there — I do not mean bar work."

British Beer and Pub Association director of communications Mark Hastings said: "So, the man who can't remember the last time he was in a pub, thinks he knows more than the trade about why pubs are closing and why this code is necessary.

"It's an extraordinary admission from someone who is proposing measures that, on the Government's own admission, will cost the pub sector hundreds of millions of pounds a year. Doesn't he think it might be a good idea to get out there and see what today's pubs are really like, before issuing laws that will damage them further?"